In the desert, the way plants hedge their bets is by keeping some seeds dormant in the soil for an extra year, instead of letting them all sprout right away. In the short term, these plants sacrifice some of their reproductive payoff. But in an environment that’s changeable and hostile, setting some seeds aside is insurance for the long term. Gremer and Venable studied bet hedging in a dozen of plant species growing in the Sonora Desert. Read Discover Magazine coverage here.